Sokunthary Svay, writer, poet, musician, City College grad student, and newly-minted 2017 Willow Books Emerging Writer, born in a refugee camp in Thailand. After her parents escaped the forced labor in the rice fields under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, Sokunthary’s family left in the 1980s and Sokunthary was raised in a New York City housing project in the South Bronx.